Some observations/questions about W 7's backup utility!

A few weeks ago I backed up W 7 to my external HD utilizing W 7's built in utility. This morning I removed a few apps, installed a few more, then restored the image. The system I built is small (less than 30 gbs) and fast with only a SSD and more RAM that I need, so the slowest link in the chain was the external HD. I didn't actually time the restore nor the re-image I did but I'd say the restore was less than 10 minutes and this new image less than 15. There is no GUI to speak of and you must choose whether to restore files or the system and therefore it performs two separate actions. Not saying that is a bad thing, just that I'm accustomed to Paragon (on the XP PC) restoring everything (unless you only want certain files) in a one shot deal. I'm also not sure how I would have proceeded if I'd only wanted to restore the MBR. Initially it was asking if I wanted to replace each file, until I noticed a field to check to do them all the same way. The whole process left me hoping it was going to restore everything or not. So I have to ask, if you've been using it, did I use it correctly? Thank you!